Narrative:

Shortly after take-off I smelled a funny odor. I was the a flight attendant (flight attendant) so I made an all call to the crew to see if they smelled it also. All flight attendants smelled a strange odor. The front smelled like musty socks and the back smelled like parmesan cheese. I called the captain to tell him about the smell and he said they smelled it as well but they were climbing higher and thought it would dissipate. The d-e-H were all sitting in the forward galley with me. We all had headaches and distorted vision. Soon afterwards; I called the back galley to see if the odor dissipated; it didn't and was informed that our one pregnant (F) flight attendant was being put on oxygen. I called the captain to tell him that (F) was on oxygen and while I was on the phone I was informed b-c-F were all on oxygen. I told the captain we didn't feel safe continuing. He said they were turning the plane around. I got up to go check on the flight attendant's in the back and immediately felt light-headed and caught myself on the jumpseat. The east flight attendant told me to sit down and we got the oxygen bottles down and we were sharing the two bottles between the four of us. We were in the air for about 50 mins total. We landed at xa:14. Upon landing no one in inflight met our aircraft. The 'B' flight attendant called crew service center and within 15 minutes inflight showed up to check on us. We told the inflight supervisors that we wanted to have blood tests run for carbon monoxide poisoning. They arranged for transportation to see a company doctor. We arrived there at xc:00. The company doctor said that he couldn't do the blood test. We were involved in many company calls through-out this ordeal and taxis were arranged for us to go to the hospital to get the blood test done. I was never seen by the company doctor since the taxis were on their way to take us to the emergency room (er). A manager showed up and about an hour later the taxis came. We arrived at the hospital [5 hours after landing]. We saw the gate agent; who met our flight; in the er waiting room; who didn't feel well; and we were informed also that three of our passengers needed treatment. The er process was very fast and had blood drawn to check our co levels. The doctor informed us that we should have been admitted soon after getting off the airplane. The test results will be forwarded to the company. According to station maintenance they washed the left engine the night before and were supposed to let it run for 10-20 minutes as procedure dictated; but the proper time wasn't allotted.I suggest during a fume incident that it should be company policy that you go straight to the er for co testing.I suggest that maintenance not take shortcuts when it comes to crew & passenger safety.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After takeoff; A330 flight attendants detected a strong chemical odor similar to 'spoiled eggs and vomit' which physiologically affected the crew and passengers. The flight returned to the departure airport. Post flight medical examinations revealed physiological symptoms; but blood tests samples were hours delayed and inconclusive.

Narrative: Shortly after take-off I smelled a funny odor. I was the A Flight Attendant (FA) so I made an all call to the crew to see if they smelled it also. All flight attendants smelled a strange odor. The front smelled like musty socks and the back smelled like parmesan cheese. I called the captain to tell him about the smell and he said they smelled it as well but they were climbing higher and thought it would dissipate. The D-E-H were all sitting in the forward galley with me. We all had headaches and distorted vision. Soon afterwards; I called the back galley to see if the odor dissipated; it didn't and was informed that our one pregnant (F) Flight attendant was being put on Oxygen. I called the captain to tell him that (F) was on oxygen and while I was on the phone I was informed B-C-F were all on Oxygen. I told the captain we didn't feel safe continuing. He said they were turning the plane around. I got up to go check on the FA's in the back and immediately felt light-headed and caught myself on the jumpseat. The E flight attendant told me to sit down and we got the oxygen bottles down and we were sharing the two bottles between the four of us. We were in the air for about 50 mins total. We landed at XA:14. Upon landing no one in inflight met our aircraft. The 'B' FA called crew service center and within 15 minutes inflight showed up to check on us. We told the inflight supervisors that we wanted to have blood tests run for Carbon Monoxide poisoning. They arranged for transportation to see a company doctor. We arrived there at XC:00. The company doctor said that he couldn't do the blood test. We were involved in many company calls through-out this ordeal and taxis were arranged for us to go to the hospital to get the blood test done. I was never seen by the company doctor since the taxis were on their way to take us to the Emergency Room (ER). A Manager showed up and about an hour later the taxis came. We arrived at the Hospital [5 hours after landing]. We saw the gate agent; who met our flight; in the ER waiting room; who didn't feel well; and we were informed also that three of our passengers needed treatment. The ER process was very fast and had blood drawn to check our CO levels. The doctor informed us that we should have been admitted soon after getting off the airplane. The test results will be forwarded to the company. According to Station Maintenance they washed the left engine the night before and were supposed to let it run for 10-20 minutes as procedure dictated; but the proper time wasn't allotted.I suggest during a fume incident that it should be company policy that you go straight to the ER for CO testing.I suggest that maintenance not take shortcuts when it comes to crew & passenger safety.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.